Minutes of WASH Coordination Meeting Held on 5 May 2016

Venue Ministry of Water Resources, Water Directorate, Tower Hill Chairing Mrs. Miata Greywoode - Head Policy, Research and Planning Unit, MoWR Mrs. Doris Bah - National WASH Coordinator at Environmental Health Directorate, MoHS Agenda 1. Opening 2. Correction & Adoption of minutes and follow up on action points 3. Discussion on Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS); challenges, successes and recommendations 4. AOB 5. Host and minute recorder for next WASH Coordination Meeting Next __ June 2016 Meeting Partners MoHS, MoWR, UNICEF, Inter Aide, Goal, OXFAM, FWC, HKI, ACF, JASS, USAID, CAWEC, Present WATERAID, UNICEF, WASH-NET, LWISL, PWPVR.

1. Opening Remarks: The meeting was opened by the Head of Policy Research and Planning, followed by a minute of silent prayer. The Chairlady went through the minutes of the last meeting and briefed participants on the agenda items for the day which mainly focused on CLTS/Sanitation and called for contributions from participants.

Discussions Action Point By Date Whom 2. Correction & Adoption of minutes and follow up on action points Partners to Partners Monthly and The only comment made was regarding presentation on provide 4W ASAP the SDGs – suggesting that deforestation and information as encroachment of catchment areas falls under target 6.6 1 soon as they can, of the SDGs. using latest templates. Participants were further reminded to turn in 4Ws using the template last shared by the WASH coordination team. Partners to communicate MoWR for any questions on the 4W 3. Discussion on CLTS; challenges, successes and recommendations A brief presentation was made by The WASH Coordinator MOHS, highlighting key principles of the approach; summary of the challenges faced during implementing the approach; current measures being put in place; and recommendations to sustain results achieved thru CLTS. The presentation was made to participants on the 28 April. However, as many of the participants were not present, the same presentation was done again on the WASH coordination meeting. It

1 http://www.unwater.org/sdgs/a-dedicated-water-goal/en/ was followed by an in-depth discussion mainly revolving around the challenges faced and the recommendations.

CLTS presentation The challenge: The presentation highlighted that the main challenges limiting success in CLTS in Sierra Leone revolve around existence of subsidies for household sanitation, lack of adequate post-triggering monitoring and follow up, and lack of a national CLTS implementation guideline.

It was further discussed by participants that:  Despite the huge investments ever since the civil war, sanitation coverage remains very low in Sierra Leone – putting in question effectiveness of aid and sanitation programming in SL  Failure to adequately address sanitation negatively affects other public health interventions. (eg. School de-worming likely to be ineffective in areas where children will go back to an unhygienic homes and environment).  Access to improved sanitation is key determinant factor for many aspects of public health (eg. 7 out of 10 children are anaemic 5 out of 10 mothers – not because of micro nutrient deficiencies but because of exposure to infections – most of it attributing to unsafe human excreta disposal. May be good to involve other stakeholders including the national anaemic working group sitting at MoHS – enough justification to strongly work on sanitation aspects. Way forward:  Set a roadmap for sanitation; MoHS 12 May 2016  strengthen technical working group (TWG) for sanitation formed during the consultative Consultative meeting held on 30 April (MoHS to share action meeting including points of that meeting before 12 May 2016) wider stakeholders MoHS  Map sanitation actors (including those June participating in the WASH coordination Partners platform) share matrix for June mapping turn in completed MoHS/C matrix onsulta  harmonize sanitation and CLTS implementation produce a nt N/A harmonized CLTS implementation manual partners  Increased social media involvement partners interested may join the whatsapp group for sanitation  Increased political will (demonstrated in inclusion of sanitation in the 24 month recovery plan)  Increased support for Sanitation in the area of financing and provision of technical support (UNICEF main actor on sanitation, expectations from MoHS that sanitation programming by other partners expands  Streamlining MEAL for sanitation (stock-taking, establishing baselines, and developing/adapting monitoring/MEAL tools)

Additional Recommendations from Participants:

 There are success stories in Sierra Leone as well (where local artisans were trained in latrine slab production and selling them for affordable prices, and people use them)  It will be good to widen the concept beyond the CLTS approach itself and provide a harmonized guideline on sanitation  It is important to go beyond the consultative meeting with partners and involve communities in the consultation process  Urban sanitation should also be taken as a critical agenda

4. AOB: Participants raised the issue of the current water shortage in N/A Freetown. It was explained that GVWC is currently constrained with the supply of water as a result of the low water level in the dam, due to the high rate of deforestation. Participants mentioned:  People are currently cutting pipes and damaging in view of getting water supply in some parts of the city  Long term solution, is to improve GVWC networks thru the 24 month recovery period/plan. 5. Host and minutes recorder for the next WASH coordination meeting It was agreed that the next WASH coordination meeting will Williamette will William 2 June 2016 be held on 2nd June 2016. be hosting ette (providing refreshment) and taking the minutes.